Meet Roger Longden
One of our newer converts to the Concept2 Indoor Rower.
Roger first discovered the Concept2 after a series of 3 back operations in 2004. “Since the operations my back is a bit of a weak point and goes if I try to do anything too silly. However I found that a combination of indoor rowing and the gymnastic ring have really strengthened my back and helped me return to normal training.”
It was a friend who encouraged Roger to take his indoor rowing to the next level. “He suggested I train for the British Indoor Rowing Championships, held every year in November. It seemed a great idea at the time, and I decided to raise money for Mission Malawi, a charity which I’d set up a few years ago”, says Roger. However 5 months after Roger started training, he heard that he was one of 6000 facing the threat of redundancy…and 3 months later he received he news he’d been dreading.
Since the operations my back is a bit of a weak point and goes if I try to do anything too silly. However I found that a combination of indoor rowing and the gymnastic ring have really strengthened my back and helped me return to normal training.
Roger Longden
“Living with the uncertainty, then the realisation I’d lost my job and then the process of trying to set up my own business in such a concentrated period was really stressful. It would have been really easy to take my eye off the ball and let the training slip”, reflects Roger. “However I found having the target to focus on gave me some stability in what was a very unsettling period. There’s no short cuts to success at BIRC and either I’d have to pull out letting myself and the charity down or I had to maintain my discpline.” And it paid off. Roger raised £2,500 and came 15th out of the 50 competitors in his category.
And what of life post BIRC…? Roger now runs his own executive coaching business mentoring, training and developing Board Directors across the country. “Inevitably I now spend a lot of time on the road and staying in hotels”, he says of his new life. “However I try to stay where I know the hotel has a Concept2 rower supplied by Indoor Sport Services and as such aim to maintain my training, usually 4-5 times a week.”
In fact having seen the positive benefits of the rower on his own life, Roger is now considering adding fitness coaching as another arm to his new business. “My goal is to create a working life which will allow me to combine my interests with my passion for development – I see rowing as forming a large part of my fitness coaching. After all it is most definitely a ‘passion’ now”.